Writing Toward Social Consciousness: Expressions of Sexuality and Gender in Mississippi University for Women’s Undergraduate Fine Arts Publication
Zoom Link
https://muw.zoom.us/j/95717735793
Department
History, Political Science, & Geography
Format of Presentation
Oral Presentation
Research Category
Humanities
Description
Undergraduate literary publications not only reflect the environment of the campuses on which they are published but also reveal the authors’ visions of the world in which they live. By examining submissions to Mississippi University for Women's fine arts publication, Dilettanti, from 1954 to 1989, this research explores the ways broader social changes and local developments influence expressions of sexuality and gender. Yet, since the publication is specific to a women’s college in Mississippi, students' concerns reflect campus life as the university navigated desegregation, changes in campus regulations, and coeducation. Through the decades covered, such changes as the rise of the women’s movement, the emergence of the birth control pill, and the resurgence of conservatism in national politics are referenced in submissions and reveal some of the students’ reactions to movements occurring nationwide. Focusing on themes of conventional gender roles, alternate sexualities, reproductive control, and the use of feminist rhetoric in submissions, this analysis highlights the shifting attitudes toward sexuality and gender as well as the attitudes that stay the same over this 35-year period. While the topics discussed change over the years, student submitters view themselves as connected to larger societal and cultural forces between the 1950s and 1980s.
Recommended Citation
Langford, Faith, "Writing Toward Social Consciousness: Expressions of Sexuality and Gender in Mississippi University for Women’s Undergraduate Fine Arts Publication" (2022). Undergraduate Research Conference. 2.
https://athenacommons.muw.edu/urc/2022/humanities-i/2
Writing Toward Social Consciousness: Expressions of Sexuality and Gender in Mississippi University for Women’s Undergraduate Fine Arts Publication
Undergraduate literary publications not only reflect the environment of the campuses on which they are published but also reveal the authors’ visions of the world in which they live. By examining submissions to Mississippi University for Women's fine arts publication, Dilettanti, from 1954 to 1989, this research explores the ways broader social changes and local developments influence expressions of sexuality and gender. Yet, since the publication is specific to a women’s college in Mississippi, students' concerns reflect campus life as the university navigated desegregation, changes in campus regulations, and coeducation. Through the decades covered, such changes as the rise of the women’s movement, the emergence of the birth control pill, and the resurgence of conservatism in national politics are referenced in submissions and reveal some of the students’ reactions to movements occurring nationwide. Focusing on themes of conventional gender roles, alternate sexualities, reproductive control, and the use of feminist rhetoric in submissions, this analysis highlights the shifting attitudes toward sexuality and gender as well as the attitudes that stay the same over this 35-year period. While the topics discussed change over the years, student submitters view themselves as connected to larger societal and cultural forces between the 1950s and 1980s.
https://athenacommons.muw.edu/urc/2022/humanities-i/2